The CECIMO Business Climate Barometer report for the 1st quarter of 2026 continues to show a challenging environment for European machine tool manufacturers. Respondents to the survey were mildly optimistic about the prospects for the start of this year but events in the Middle East subsequent to the data collection period will, inevitably, have a significant impact on the outlook for the rest of the year.
The 4th quarter of 2025 saw another significant negative balance in the question about the general business climate, extending this run to 11 periods. However, the latest figure was the least negative since the 1st quarter of 2024 and total orders across the CECIMO 8 countries (Austria, Czechia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the UK) were at their best since the end of 2023.
Capacity utilisation among European machine tool manufacturers weakened at the end of 2025 to the lowest level since the 1st quarter of 2024 but we would expect this to lag the activity cycle given the “build-to-order” nature of significant parts of the machine tool industry.
The CECIMO Business Conditions Index is a composite indicator of expectations for demand, production, export and employment; this has been steadily improving from a low point in Q1-2025 and with this trend continuing through to the outlook for Q1-2026, it moved back into positive territory for the first time since Q3-2024. Three of the four elements had a more positive outlook for the start of this year, with export demand being the only one to weaken compared to Q4-2025.
Note: Although dated “1st quarter 2026”, the data used was gathered from companies in January and really refers to the 4th period of 2025, with the Q1-2026 numbers being forward looking projections.
You can download the Business Climate Barometer report in full from the members area of the MTA website at https://www.mta.org.uk/members-area/market-intelligence/global-mt-report/ – you will, of course, need your members login and password to access this.